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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5968636" data-attributes="member: 42582">Basically, the answer is "no". Or "not any more than you already would.If you see goblins with bows, you know they will shoot you at a distance. Knowing that they have the "artillery" role doesn't add to that information. It is a classification and planning tool for the GM.Controllers have fiddly stuff, but a very wide variety of it - and (just as defenders and controllers overlap on the PC side) soldiers can also have quite a bit of melee control.Yes, in the sense that - for a given level - they determine a monster's hp, and set parameters for its defences and damage.Yes - except in the 4e system it will be classified as a higher level soldier. (Higher level because it is just more powerful.) Or you could just use a higher-level brute. Depending what exactly you want the encounter to look like, you might even use a slightly lower-level elite soldier.It's no part of the controller stats to be physically weak, and some of the toughest melee monsters I've used are controllers of one form or another.Elites and even moreso solos tend to look like this. Plus, as I noted above, controllers tend to play similarly to some soldiers, but with more complexity. And if you want your controller more brutish (ie more hit points and/or damage) make it higher level or elite.Exactly this.I think this is correct and consistent with what I've said above.It worth noting that many 4e books - Open Grave, Demonomicon, DMG2 and others - have "monster themes" which are additional powers that can be added to a monster to give it a certain thematic oomph but aren't so strong as to change it's level/role in a way that will muck up encounter planning.Which emphasises that the point of roles is to support encounter building, and the point of levels to support encounter building as well as the PC-progression-via-XP side of things.If you want a different sort of encounter, nothing stops you building it. And the role-and-level rules give you at least a rough-and-ready guide to how it will play.</blockquote>

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